Sister Mine
by eternallybound92
Summary: Losing a friend is more painful than losing a romantic relationship. - Revan al-asmari. Bella tries to cope with the loss of her best friend, her sister. A tale told through letters.
1. 09-03-2006

**09.03.2006 7.23pm**

 **Sender: B Swan ( .ignetmail)**

 **Recipient: A Cullen ( .alphanet)**

 **Topic: Please Answer**

Did you know that he would lie to me?

I didn't. I know he was beyond me, most things are. He was everything, and in comparison I was… well, there is no comparison. I barely deserve to even be considered in that competition.

Still, I didn't expect the lies. Never would have thought him capable of that after we had shared in such impossible truths. It's for the best, I know. I never wanted to hinder him. Please know that, I didn't know what I was doing to him; how I was restricting him.

I would never have chased if I knew. Please know that.

I would have looked away from him. Beaten down my desire to puzzle him out. Sometimes I wish I had… with everything inside me. I'm split in two, my friend. One half knowing that being with him for even the smallest measure of time would always be worth it… The other shrivels and dies when I think of what I once had, and what I lost in the fallout.

You might even be proud. It took this to bring out my self-preservation. I remember him lamenting my apparent disregard for that instinct. But it was there, I know now. I feel it – some innate drive that stopped me from bowing down and never getting up again. Sometimes I wish I really was defective – in my darkest moments, I wish that I could sleep and never wake. But in the end, my body wants to live and its drags my mind and soul along with it.

It's what he wanted for me anyway. To live, to age… to die. I can do that, really it's a process I cannot escape. The plight of human kind. All of us born with some hidden expiry date.

God, I sound maudlin. I really shouldn't send this. It hurts to see another go unanswered. Then again, I don't really blame you for not responding to my previous words. Not my finest moments by far.

I really got off track. Rambling on like I always do. I asked a question… one that I'm pretty sure I don't want the answer to. But still, did you see his lie to me? Did you know, my friend?

It was a blasphemous lie from his lips.

Maybe one day my heart will relinquish its tether to him. Maybe I will even belong to another like he wanted for me. I don't not blame him for this. Edward was always a selfless creature.

But it is impossible for time to sieve his presence from my mind. All humans remember a fragment of their first love at the very least… how could I ever not remember mine. He will never be gone.

So he lied. Please tell me you didn't know, my friend. I do not think I could bare it. Too much.

All my love,

Your sister,

Bella


	2. 10-09-2006

**10.09.2006 4.49am**

 **Sender: B Swan ( .ignetmail)**

 **Recipient: A Cullen ( .alphanet)**

 **Topic: Why?**

I hate you.

Do you understand that? Today… this moment… I hate you. You left me, sister mine. Are you even still? Do you really understand that kind of binding thread to another? I don't feel it. I don't feel that link to you. It's just gone under the weight of aching, consuming rage.

You left me.

Betrayed.

Lost.

 _Forsaken._

How could you? How could you do that to me?! My sister… you left me. And you took all of us with you when you left. Those memories… Did I imagine you? My best friend… Were you just a dream? My truest friend. How could I possibly be this angry at a mirage… a figment of my obviously sick mind that probably was never even real?

You weren't, were you?

You stepped out of this town, out of my life and just… disappeared. And nothing changed. No-one changed for your leaving, but me. Life went on as always. Your disappearance did not leave a hole, jagged or smooth in our town. There is no vacuum where your presence used to be… for anyone, save me.

Have I gone mad? Am I really Alice and you and the rest were my Wonderland? An escape from my life when I desired it. Pulled from it before I was ready.

I hate you.

I hate you.

I HATE YOU.

…

I love you.

Please, I love you. Please come back, sister mine. I need you. Everything is hard and painful and broken and just _wrong_ since you left. A clean break? Ha. What a motherfucking joke. The cruellest kind of lie. You were **torn** out of my life. Ripped and clawed and scraped out of my life… my heart. Clean? Fuck that. Nothing could have been more brutal, more savage. I'm jagged and bleeding and _hurt…_

I hate you again.

I hate you all.

How could you do this to me? Was I not a friend to you… even the most basic kind? Was I not something more than a pet to be kicked and tethered alone to starve and rot?

I wasn't, was I?

My delusions greater than even I knew. To think that you could care for me half as strongly as I love you. That fierce, desperate clinging to you was the breaking point, wasn't it? I assumed… I thought myself better than I deserved. I was unworthy, wasn't I? Not enough to stand among you. To ever be counted as family.

I hate you.

I love you.

I miss you.

 _ **Please come back!**_

Bella


	3. 14-11-2013

**14.11.2013 10.45pm**

 **Sender: B Swan ( .ignetmail )**

 **Recipient: A Cullen ( .alphanet )**

 **Topic: I Miss You**

Time. It's a horrible thing really, isn't it? It winds on and on. And I can't stop it.

Eight years.

I'm 26 years old now. Older physically now than even the oldest among you. It's strange… The mirror hasn't yet marked me like I thought it would when I was younger. I look much the same.

A little taller, a little wider. After all, the girl that I was had to become a woman sometime. My hair is shorter now, I can't be bothered with the upkeep for such long heavy locks. I died it red three times. Black once. And the very brief decision to go blonde resulted in a hefty hairdressing bill to erase the orange tint.

My old colour is back now. My running from that part of my identity at a rest for now. Charlie is pretty relieved, my hair and eyes are the only things I got from him, at least in looks. His reaction was way over the top the first time I came home with streaked black hair. Looking back, even I have to cringe though. Apparently I was embracing all the cliches back then. My little moments of teenager rebellion showing up a little later than most.

I went to college. Never thought I would when I knew you.

I stayed close. The University of Washington was far enough from Charlie. Strange how the rain here is a comfort now, rather than a raging inconvenience. Still, every time I go to visit my mother I struggle to rest, the constant pattering of rain a soothing sound I never thought I'd miss.

I got my degree in English Literature. I can almost see your eyes rolling. There was little doubt that I would follow that path in life. My minors came as a surprise to me, but I fell in love with the language and the words. Russian literature… It has a lure that sometimes rivals my love of Wuthering Heights or Romeo and Juliette.

I fell in to that part of Literature, and learning the language itself was difficult, but well worth it. Where my tongue used to tangle over it, I'm fluent now. Sometimes I like it more than my native tongue, the words have some lyrical yet harsh quality that soothes something inside.

I've been tutoring some students privately in both language since. Paying my way as I work on my teaching degree. It makes me laugh sometimes… the irony. I had thought once that I was doomed to spend my days in school for the rest of eternity. Though that has changed now, still will I belong to school for most of my life. Just on the other side of the desk.

Strange to think that it's possible I might teach you one day. I hope I don't though. I love you, sister mine, but I don't think I could take it. My heart may not be aching as it once did, but a part of me will always belong with you. I gave it to you all, and I never took it back.

I haven't moved on. I've had friends… good ones. Some friendships that spilled over into other parts of my life, but I know I'm not ready. They touch and press, but can't claim that part of me. My heart isn't whole enough yet.

Maybe one day.

I miss you, you know? I still send these to you old address. It's probably inactive now and I'm sending my private thoughts out into a dead recess of the internet. They give me comfort though.

I don't know if I'll keep writing. I don't know if these will ever reach you. Maybe I'll be long gone when you find them. Morbid thoughts, I know. But someday I hope you read them. That you know that no matter what happened between us, between everyone, I did love you. I love every single one of you. You were family. My family.

You changed me. For better or worse, you and the others were a part of my life. And I would not be me without your presence and influence.

I love you, Alice.

Your sister in heart,

Bella


	4. 18-07-2020

**18.07.2020 11.13am**

 **Sender: B Swan ( .ignetmail )**

 **Recipient: A Cullen ( .alphanet )**

 **Topic: Wish You Were Here**

Ethan.

Just a name. But… Ethan was everything I haven't been looking for. Though the years have passed and time is starting to tug at me, I never could open that part of myself to a man… to anyone really. He was someone I definitely wasn't looking for – I did not believe I deserved to look.

He found me nonetheless. A man I would never have searched for, never sought out. But I want him now. He appeared in my life and I want him, deserving or not.

I fell in love with his soul.

He has such a beautiful one. He smoothed the ragged edges of mine. Loved and stroked them until I shined just as he did. Maybe deserving after all. He is joy and laughter and love. He teaches children, you know? While I bite and curse my way through teaching English and Russian literature courses at college – god, the students are awful sometimes. I have new respect for any teacher I ever had in my life – he teaches children.

Every year a new batch of bright-eyed six year olds. Artwork and photos litter the apartment, he loves his work so much. His students thriving and flourishing under his guidance. Sometimes it irritates me how chipper he can be. I'll be tearing my hair out over essays and he'll be cheerfully awaiting another day filled with hyper children. I'd hate his constant sunshine smile and bubbly attitude…

But I fell in love with that smile.

And I fell in lust with the way it tastes. Hot and sweet against mine. Gentle and tender at one moment, and the fiery and passionate at the next. Soothing and burning and wild.

I didn't quite fall into his bed… I sank. Slow and deep and soundly until I never wanted to leave again. Love and passion and heat and strength I found there. Still do. There is a wondrous sort of peace in his arms. A belonging I have never fully felt before. Never allowed myself to… But I deserve him. Ethan.

He is mine. And I am his.

And I never want that to change.

We sure aren't perfect. But who really is, my friend? We fight and we scream and we hurt sometimes, falling into bed in a tangle of fury and lust until we fight out all the rage. Those mornings after, bruised and hurt and aching, we pull each other back together again. Stitching ourselves tighter in the other's heart. It's bloody and raw and agony, but we always make it through. Back to the love and happiness and peace. Our storms weathered; the love we share still burning hot and true.

It's how we survive.

Dear friend, I miss you. Sometimes I see little parts of you in Ethan. You really were the brightest, most wondrous star the universe ever made, but Ethan comes close. Though I wish I could see your face, giggle over my life and my relationship as we once did… I can't have you both. I know that. And Ethan… he is my choice.

Though a piece of my heart will forever me lost to you and the rest, Ethan makes it possible to bear that loss. His love a balm, soothing my fractured heart. If I really believed in such things anymore, I would say he was my soulmate, and I was his.

I don't believe in them, you know. Not anymore. Ethan isn't some destined other-half. He is my choice, like I am his choice. I believe in that choice and in people – glorious, fractured people who fight and claw and scream to hold onto one another. Those who choose every day to fight for the other. Clinging to love despite the agony and the grief for those more precious moments. For those smiles. That sense of belonging. To someone… far beyond yourself.

I love him, you know.

I made him wait far too long to hear those words from my lips. But he waited. He was patient and he trusted. Told me that he saw the truth of me in my eyes. I think he knew before I did how my heart had lashed itself to his. Tethered my love to him. Reliant upon the steady beat of his heart.

My sweet, beautiful man.

I wish you could meet him, my darling sister. Maybe you already know, but I wish I could tell you. Show you my feeling, my love. Thank you for being there for me so many years ago. I cannot ever express my gratitude for you and yours. Or my love.

I love you.

Your soul-sister

Bella


	5. 14-04-2021

**14.04.2021 5.03pm**

 **Sender: B Swanlie ( .ignetmail )**

 **Recipient: A Cullen ( .alphanet )**

 **Topic: Save The Date?**

I know that after over fifteen years of unanswered emails to you, this effort is rather futile. But, after so many years and countless letters – it's almost become a ritual of sorts. So, I'm going to send it to you anyway. I prefer to live in a world where you _do_ get this and that you still care about what happens in my life.

Your keen eyes can't have missed the change in my email by now. It's a running joke between Ethan and I. I don't want to forget my past – _any_ part of it. It led me to here. So for now until the wedding where my new name will be Mrs. Isabella Swan-Farlie, I'm Miss Swanlie. Ethan grins every time he says it. I think it reassures him that I accepted his proposal more than the gorgeous sapphire ring he bought me.

I know, I can all but hear you admonishing me on my choice of stone. I know diamonds go hand in hand with engagement rings. But there was no way in hell I was letting him surprise me with a birthstone ring somewhere down the track! He wasn't put out though. Just pouted like one of his students when he asked why I wanted a sapphire of all things.

So adorable hopeless that man.

I know you, dear heart. If by any chance I still appear to you in the vaguest flicker, I had to send you one. Ethan knows something of you all, bare facts mostly. More you than anyone else. He thinks my letters to you are a version of a journal, and I guess they kind of are.

I can imagine you taking control of every little detail. And I'd be more than happy for you to take the reins on nearly all of it. We would have had a wonderful time, wouldn't we? Especially now that I could appreciate you more. That the awkward streak I harbored as a teenager barred me from enjoying fully. Funny how that always happens. Hindsight, huh?

Anyway. I attached a photo of the actual invitation. But the details are also below.

Love,

Bella

 _Ethan Lee Farlie_

 _And_

 _Isabella Marie Swan_

 _Request your presence as they choose to solidify their bond and hope that you may be a witness to the commitment and love they have for one another._

 _Saturday the twenty-second of October, 2021, at 10 am._

 _The Vanderlin Gardens, PA_

 _Light luncheon to follow the reception._


	6. 23-01-2023

**23.01.2023 12.58pm**

 **Sender: B Swan-Farlie ( .ignetmail )**

 **Recipient: A Cullen ( .alphanet )**

 **Topic: Seven Pounds**

There is really no other way to break this news, but to just say it.

 _Ethan and Isabella Farlie invite you to join in the celebration of the new addition to their family,_

 _Alissa Mae Farlie_

 _Born the twentieth of January, 2023 at 2.27am._

 _Seven pounds, two ounces. 19.5 inches._

 _The Farlie family would appreciate your support and love at this new point in their lives._

Little else to explain.

Alissa… there simply aren't words, dear sister. That amazing little girl… she is, well, everything. For the more a shrivelled, red little ball, but still. She is love and everything good in this world. Charlie promises that I looked pretty much the same when I was new, and that Alissa _will_ cuten (I know, I know… bad English professor – cuten is so _not_ a word) up over the next few days.

I don't really care though. She is gorgeous and she is mine. All mine. And I don't think I could change a single thing about her. How is possible that Ethan and I could have created something so… so damn beautiful and wonderful and new.

I named her after you, dear one. Neither Ethan nor I were blessed with actual siblings growing up, but to me, a soul-sister is better than a blood one. At least you were… are. We had to choose human god-parents – good friends of ours with adorable twin boys of their own. I wish you could be her godmother for real, but unofficially, you are. My little one's godmother, sister mine, if you would accept. I would not, could not, have it any other way.

Please tell Esme – ( _god_ , how I miss her, and Carlisle too), that we chose Mae as her second name after Ethan's mother. But I love knowing that little bit of Esme's name is part of my daughters. After all, your parents were once my parents, at least to me. To me, Esme was motherhood; I will emulate her example as I raise a child of my own. In my heart, Alissa will always be their unofficial granddaughter. She deserves to have a part of the Cullen legacy, even if she'll never know it.

I hope this letter find you.

I know that our lives intersected for their destined time and that our parting so many years ago was the end of it. I have learned to accept it, I suppose. Still, it is reassuring to know that another eye might be watching over my little girl. That when I am gone, you'll still be there. Exactly as you ever were, an eternal guardian of sorts.

The godmother that Alissa will never know. I wish you could know her. And her you. The three of us… what an amazing life we could have had spent. I know you would have turned my darling into a raging shopaholic behind my back… I wish it could be so. Happy and smiling together.

I miss you,

Bella.

PS. I attached pictures. Perhaps too many. It's a little crazy just how many we have managed to take of her in three short days. We can't help it. She's captivating.


	7. 19-01-2041

**19.01.2041 10.23pm**

 **Sender: B Swan-Farlie ( .ignetmail)**

 **Recipient: A Cullen ( .alphanet)**

 **Topic: Full Circle**

This date probably has very little meaning to you, or any of your family. Even to mine, today has passed by only in anticipation for tomorrow. In the grand scheme of things, I think only I have needed to take a few moments to remember what could have been.

My baby is turning eighteen tomorrow.

That gorgeous little baby I once held in my arms… all grown up. She's so beautiful Alice. And in so many ways, completely different to me. I remember my own coming of age with horror mostly. I was so terrified of getting older… getting further away from the once love of my life.

Alissa does not have that same point of view. She's staying at her friend, Nicole's house tonight. I know what they're up to – Alissa still has not learned how to whisper her excitement over the phone. That girl… She and Nicole are going to toast her newfound adulthood with shots.

Dear God, how did I ever get here, my friend?

We used to talk of shopping and love and Jasper and Edward… of what our lives would be like. So strange that your life is probably so similar still. While in mine, I'm fighting with my husband about letting our little girl spend the night with her friend and drink on her birthday. Ethan is still on the couch… such an overprotective father. We'll make up soon enough, probably five seconds after Alissa gets home glowing and so happy to have this night without her parents looking in.

Charlie and I do have a little more in common these days. He just laughed the first time I called him, furious that I had found a teenage boy in my little girl's room. Told me what goes around comes around and that it was my punishment for sneaking around with a boy when I was her age. Funny, I never knew that Charlie managed to get around a certain gift or two to actually know that. Although maybe it's father's intuition. Ethan certainly suspected it far longer than I did.

Alissa is so much like her father. So happy and bright, rarely shy at all. Not at all like me. She has a whole gang of friends, with Nicole as her closest confidant. Like you were to me. And much to Ethan and mine's consternation, has a slew of admirers wherever she goes. Her first boyfriend was at just fourteen, Alice! God, my life did not prepare me for a _normal_ teenage girl. Although Jared probably didn't deserve the instinctual hatred we had for him. Poor boy.

I look at our lives… I can't help but compare them. In every way, nothing is the same. I spent a year hiding every aspect of my life before my own eighteen, and I am still hiding it, decades on. I know that Alissa has her own secrets, but we share nearly everything else. Too much really.

I was proud (and ridiculously horrified) a couple of months ago when she let me curl up with her in her bedroom like we had when she was little. She's bilingual, you know? I taught her Russian, and she still delights that her father never bothered to learn. Whispering secrets into the night. I love that she lets me be a part of her life like this, though I sort of wish I hadn't known just how close her and Liam had gotten over the past year.

She's free, you know. In a way I never could be when I was her age. Free to love who she wants, how she wants. Unrestrained by secrets or her own deep insecurities.

I'm not naïve. I know that she and Liam probably won't last. But what's more, she _knows_ that. I wish sometimes that I had that same strength at her age. To know that things will end one day, and still go for everything all the same. That courage.

I wish you could meet her, dear heart. If only to take her on a weeklong shopping expedition, so that I don't have too! (Only joking). So that you could meet this beautiful girl. This little piece of me that is so innocent and carefree. I wish she could spend time with her godmother, the way that I used to spend time with you.

I wish all of you could see her. Meet her.

I know that you could never be a part of the rest of my life – I am human after all. And so is she. But I know that my time with you shaped huge parts of me and in some small part, led me to all of this. This wonderful, horrible, amazing life. With all its ups and downs. All its surprises.

To Ethan and Alissa.

I have to go now. Need to get some sleep before the night ends and your awkward high school friend suddenly as a new adult on her hands. Eighteen… where did the time go?

If you get this, send your best wishes to Alissa. Come 2.27am in a few hours, her life will have just begun. Just as my life changed and begun on my eighteen birthday.

I love you,

Your sister,

Bella


	8. 27-08-2061

**27.08.2061 2.19pm**

 **Sender: B Swan-Farlie ( .ignetmail)**

 **Recipient: A Cullen ( .alphanet)**

 **Topic: Time**

So many words I have sent into the universe to you, the sister of my soul.

Heaven only knows if you even got them; if my little virtual letters ever made it to you. Against all logic, against every rationality… Against everything really, I believe that you did. That for all these long years, I've had a nosy little angel peering over my shoulder. Caring from afar. Having a good laugh or two at my expense. Strange to think that you're exactly the same right now. Bright and polished and beautiful like my memories. Always you, forevermore.

Dearest friend, I missed you more of late. Memories of you closer than before, brighter in my mind. I almost ache for a hug from you. From any one of you. I know you were real, despite what I may have spewed over the years. I know.

How could you not be?

My dearest Ethan has gone on before me. We laid him to rest only two years ago. Peaceful and still, a smile on his lips in death as there always was in life. I am glad for his lack of pain – the end coming for him in his sleep. But I grieve that he died in the bed we shared for so many years.

A lifetime together, my husband and I.

If I was the fanciful creature that I was in my youth, I would tell you that I can feel his soul calling to me. Tugging and pulling me to him once again. Oh, what has time done to me? Decades later and still I am here romanticizing death. I can almost hear your laugh. Still, I like to think of it as him calling me, than just my human body finally failing me.

This will be my last letter, sister mine. I can feel the end.

Thank you for giving me such a wondrous beginning and sending me on the path to my darling Ethan… to my future. I had a good life, dear sister. I had my parents, my Ethan and our little girl. It was more than enough, more than any one person really deserves.

Live your life full. Never waste a single day. Yours may be many, but they are not endless. Death comes for us all in the end.

Tell the family I love them. I'm forever grateful to have been a small part of them. My life is better for knowing them. I love you all.

I love you, Alice.

Forever your sister,

Bella

PS. If these have reached you, sister mine. Watch over my baby, and her babies. I love them more than words can say. Keep them safe. I l love you.


	9. 21-09-2061

**21.09.2061 4.02pm**

 **Sender: A Wyatt ( .ignetmail)**

 **Recipient: A Cullen ( .alphanet)**

 **Topic: Alice Cullen**

I do not know you. My mother did, quite well apparently. She was very specific in one of her requests that I carry this out when she was no longer able. She wanted someone to send this message from her account before it was cancelled. If you truly knew my mother, you know that she was a stubborn woman. I could not, will not, disregard her final wishes.

I am sorry if this causes you any pain. I know that she kept touch with someone from her youth. My father and she argued a few times about it. I haven't read the sent emails from this account. Did you know that she kept it solely to message you? I didn't.

I won't read them. She never wanted me or my father to.

I hope you understand that I have to send this. I hope it gives you some sense of peace, or closure. Or whatever it is that my mother wanted you to have. She knew you, I didn't. So I am taking her view on this. And she needed you to know.

Whoever you are, Alice… please know that my mother loved you very much. She wanted you to know that a part of her heart never returned to her after she met you and your family. That she forgave you for what happened all those years ago. She loved you. All of you.

Sometimes I wish I could meet the woman that my mother asked me to send this to. There was such a light in her eyes when she made this request – something that never dimmed over the years. I hope my children have their grandmother's capacity for love. It may have pained her sometimes, but I think in the end, it served her well.

Thank-you for being a part of her life.

Faithfully,

Alissa Wyatt.

 _We regret to announce the passing of Isabella Marie Swan-Farlie on the 11_ _th_ _of September, 2061._

 _Mrs Swan-Farlie passed peacefully in her sleep. She is proceeded by her daughter, Alissa Wyatt and her four grandchildren: Renee, Charlotte, Marie and Thomas._

 _Her family wishes to grieve in private. Your thoughts and prayers are welcome._

 _Funeral arrangements are ongoing._

 **Isabella Marie Swan-Farlie**

 **13.09.1987 – 11.09.2061**

" **The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it"**


	10. 26-01-2061

**26.01.2061 11.58pm**

 **Sender: A Cullen ( .alphanet)**

 **Recipient: A Wyatt ( .ignetmail)**

 **Topic: Alissa**

Hello Alissa.

Thank-you for sending your mother's last words to me. I haven't seen her in decades – we were friends once in high-school. She dated my brother.

I have missed her immeasurable over the years. I was sad to lose touch with her, but life… it takes you in different directions sometimes. I know you know what an amazing women your mother was, Bella had a gift for accepting people… loving them. I miss that kind of love.

If you could, I would appreciate knowing the details of her funeral once they are organised. Though we haven't been in touch, I wish to pay my respects to my old friend. My family may wish to do the same at some point.

Thank-you Alissa for you kind words.

Faithfully,

Alice Hale-Cullen


	11. 27-01-2061

**27.01.2061 12.03am**

 **Sender: A Cullen ( .alphanet)**

 **Recipient: A Wyatt ( .ignetmail)**

 **Topic: MESSAGE SEND FAILURE**

-MESSAGE FAILED TO SEND-

A Wyatt at (.ignetmail) has been disconnected. All emails to this address will be returned to sender.

Please use a current email address in future.

UNSENT MESSAGE:

 _Hello Alissa._

 _Thank-you for sending your mother's last words to me. I haven't seen her in decades – we were friends once in high-school. She dated my brother._

 _I have missed her immeasurable over the years. I was sad to lose touch with her, but life… it takes you in different directions sometimes. I know you know what an amazing women your mother was, Bella had a gift for accepting people… loving them. I miss that kind of love._

 _If you could, I would appreciate knowing the details of her funeral once they are organised. Though we haven't been in touch, I wish to pay my respects to my old friend. My family may wish to do the same at some point._

 _Thank-you Alissa for you kind words._

 _Faithfully,_

 _Alice Hale-Cullen_


	12. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

A petite young woman stood in the distance.

It was finally a cloudy day overhead, but she wore a coat, gloves and scarf nonetheless. Just in case, she had said as she headed out the door, apparently on a spontaneous shopping trip. Carlisle wasn't home and Esme hadn't thought to question her sudden decision. No-one had really. The only pair that might have divined her practiced lie were on an extended hunting trip.

Tugging at the coat, she watched from the tree-line at the small grouping surrounding a freshly dug grave. It was a fairly modest crowd – and she hadn't expected anything less. Her old friend was not exactly a social butterfly, but from their short time together… the clumsy teen that she had once known had possessed some odd talent for drawing people in effortlessly.

She didn't bother looking for the fair-haired paramour that her friend had married. She had joined her husband now. Alice wiped at her wet eyes, lamenting her inability to cry once more. Ethan had been a good man to her friend, her sister. Loving and loyal to the end. The rested together once more.

A tall, curved brunette stood at the front, a man with greyed reddish hair by her side. She was sobbing, Alice saw, wiping furiously at tears and cuddling her youngest daughter, Alice guessed. She thought back to one of the last emails she had ever received… Had to be Marie. Her dearest friend's youngest granddaughter. From what she had gathered… and somewhat illegally researched, Marie was twelve now. The rail-thin boy with hair of reddish-brown was Thomas, a rather solemn frown on his face for a boy of only nine.

A soft sob escaped as Alice spied the last pair of her friend's grandchildren. Twins of all things. Two young women of nineteen, named for the great-grandparent's neither would ever know. They were so beautiful, Renee and Charlotte. Charlotte had an arm wrapped around her little brother, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Unable to help herself, Alice snapped a picture quickly. This was what remained of her friend. This was her legacy on this earth. Children and grandchildren and the possibility of more. Little pieces of her friend scattered on this earth for all time.

It felt like hours as the group mourned. Placing flowers and wreaths and letters all over the new grey gravestone. Painfully new, she thought. One by one, friends and distance relatives trickled out of the cometary, returning to those in their lives that still lived.

Alissa… she couldn't help but snap another photo as the woman left with Marie in her arms, while her husband wrapped his around little Thomas' shoulders. Charlotte knelt by the grave for a moment, whispering something she couldn't quite hear, before hugging her sister and following her family.

Curiosity peaked in Alice. Nothing in the family was frosty per say, but now that she thought about it, Renee was further away from the rest of her family. Not being comforted, not comforting. Ducking out a little to see better, a sound caught her attention. A steady beat of a heart, and then fluttering beat of a younger once.

Alice saw them before Renee did. A tall broad-shouldered young man ambled over to the bereaved young woman. With a wriggling little body in his arms. Alice smiled, seeing the soppy look on his face as he wrapped an arm around Renee, hugging her tight. "She wanted you," he drawled, a hint of a southern twang to his tone. Alice smiled, Jasper sounded like that still.

Renee took the wriggling bundle, pink socked feet tapping her thigh. She rocked slowly, shushing the little girl in her arms. "I just miss her so much, Liam… Grams was the only one who never once judged us for doing this."

Alice's nose crinkled. So there was a great-granddaughter – Renee must have barely been a teenager when she had her. The girl was at least two. Still, it was just like her sister to accept the child. After all, she had accepted Edward and Alice and the rest of the family so many years ago.

She was a singular women.

Liam held her tight, before kneeling and placing a single sprig of freesia amongst the assorted mix of roses and lilies. "Hey Grams, its Liam. We miss you so much, it's not the same without your special brand of wit. Thank-you for everything you did for me and Renee. We'll never forget it."

Getting up and patting the dirt off his knees, he pressed a kiss to Renee's forehead and shoved his hands in his jeans. "I'll go get the car. See you in ten minutes or so?"

A sniffle and a nod was his reply. Alice watched as he wandered back to the parking lot, whistling a low and melancholy tune. She stepped closer again, unable to resist seeing the newest addition to her friend's family – one that she had obviously loved and protected.

A childish whine as Renee let her down on her feet, ruffled dark brown locks pulled into two sloppy pigtails. She was young, about two like she'd guessed. Small and petite. Mother and daughter hugging as they whispered to each other. Alice almost felt bad for eavesdropping… but not enough to stop.

"Remember how Daddy and I said that Grams went to the special place? To see Grandad again? And Hickory and Topsy? That they're all together again?"

It was soft but beautiful. "Yes Mama."

"This is what we put up so everyone knows that Grams was a great person. So no-one forgets her or how amazing she was. We loved Grams a lot didn't we?"

Chubby fingers reached for a plump red rose. "Loved her lots and lots. Miss her, Mama."

"I know honey. I miss her too."

Alice rubbed her eyes again. Her silent heart aching in her chest. Eventually Renee got up and wiped her knees, "Come on, Isobel. Time to go find daddy."

She couldn't stifle the sob this time. Isobel. It hurt more when the pair turned to go, and Alice caught a glimpse of the little girl's face. Imprinted in her mind for eternity. Huge, doe-like eyes. The shape... the colour… Little Isobel practically a twin of her namesake.

Generations apart, and her friend's doppelganger was wandering past her grave as a toddler. Alice bit her lip, not sure whether to be happy or sad. It hurt so much.

It was dark, and the little family was long gone before she could approach that new slab of stone. It seemed so final now. She hadn't quite felt the loss completely until this moment. The bouquet of freesia and lavender sprigs was a little wilted but it felt fitting to place them next to Liam's offering. The two flowers had been synonymous in her mind with her sister since high school. One that only her family and Bella had known the significance of.

The words from that email were craved into the granite. Simple and beautiful, just like Bella had always been in life.

 **Isabella Marie Swan-Farlie**

 **13.09.1987 – 11.09.2061**

" **The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it"**

In Alice's mind, the quote was unusual, but apt. The others may not know, but she always would. Bella had known the price of things far earlier than most. Had contemplated the worth of exchanging her human life for love at once time. And now, Alice was sure that her wonderful young friend had gladly paid the price of humanity to have this wonderful family, this amazing legacy.

Everything Bella had been would live on in her children, grandchildren… in Isobel. That gorgeous new life with Bella's hair and eyes.

Trembling fingers touched the stone gently. "I love you Bella. I'm sorry I never answered you. I didn't want to mess anything of this up. You had a wonderful life without us. I'm so sorry I could never be a part of it. I promise that I will watch over all your family for the rest of my life."

A mournful cry.

"I love you so much, my sister. You always were my sister. I'll never forget."

Tucking her hands into her coat, Alice shuffled out of the graveyard, pulling out her phone and bringing up a contact to call. It rung three times before it was picked up.

Her voice fading as answered the woman on the other end. "Alice?"

"Esme, I've been keeping something from you all. I think you need to know…"


End file.
